College Student Arrested for Tampering with Palin's E-mail

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article5879657.ece

A 21-year-old student has pleaded not guilty to charges of hacking into the personal e-mail account of Sarah Palin, the Alaska governor and former Republican vice-presidential nominee.

David Kernell, a University of Tennessee student, faces four charges after allegedly using publicly available information about Mrs Palin to guess the password to her Yahoo! e-mail account while she was on the campaign trail last September.

Kernell, the son of a Democratic Tennessee legislator, is accused of correctly answering a series of personal security questions to reset the password. He is said to have read the e-mails, made screenshots and posted his exploits on the web using the nickname "rubico."

The indictment said that at least one other person followed a similar path into Mrs Palin's account. Some material from the e-mail account was posted on the Wikileaks website.

Three new counts were added to the original charge of intentionally accessing the account without authorisation when the student appeared before a US district judge in Knoxville, Tennessee. Kernell now faces charges of fraud, unlawful electronic transmission of material outside Tennessee and attempts to conceal records to impede an FBI investigation.

If convicted, he faces a maximum punishment of 20 years in prison, a $250,000 (£180,000) fine and five years of supervised release, according to WBIR-TV in its report of the hearing.

Judge Clifford Shirley told Kernell that he was free until trial, set for October, as long as he met certain conditions, including using a computer only for ****work.

Kernell is the son of longtime state Representative Mike Kernell of Memphis, chairman of Tennessee's House Government Operations Committee.

Whenever I look at this guy, all I can think about are the Hobbits from Lord of the Rings.

20 years in prison for hacking someone's computer? Isn't that slightly over the top?

And yeah he does look like one of the hobbits :lol:

20 years in prison for hacking someone's computer? Isn't that slightly over the top?

And yeah he does look like one of the hobbits :lol:

TheOddQuantum

Palin is a government official. . .and he's being charged with more than hacking into a computer.

20 Years is going too far, it can't of been anything terrible that he leaked as this is the first I'm hearing of it. The authorities just don't know what to do, not in control of the situation once again.

Furthermore might give them a kick in the butt to keep tighter control over their government officials and their documents to prevent further leaks.

20 Years is going too far, it can't of been anything terrible that he leaked as this is the first I'm hearing of it. The authorities just don't know what to do, not in control of the situation once again.

tomo90

Kernell now faces charges of fraud, unlawful electronic transmission of material outside Tennessee and attempts to conceal records to impede an FBI investigation.

What he leaked is irrelevant to the fact that he leaked it, and he's being charged with more than just that.

If anything, the FBI should hire him. Find out how he got in, then have him try it again, etc.

[QUOTE="TheOddQuantum"]

20 years in prison for hacking someone's computer? Isn't that slightly over the top?

And yeah he does look like one of the hobbits :lol:

Theokhoth

Palin is a government official. . .and he's being charged with more than hacking into a computer.

20 Years is going too far, it can't of been anything terrible that he leaked as this is the first I'm hearing of it. The authorities just don't know what to do, not in control of the situation once again.

tomo90

20 Years is going too far, it can't of been anything terrible that he leaked as this is the first I'm hearing of it. The authorities just don't know what to do, not in control of the situation once again.

thats bull he did'nt even hack it illigall sarah palin was just stupid enough to use a easy password that he guessed if it was anyone else this would not even go to court

If anything, the FBI should hire him. Find out how he got in, then have him try it again, etc.

efrucht

If anything, the FBI should hire him. Find out how he got in, then have him try it again, etc.

efrucht

thats bull he did'nt even hack it illigall sarah palin was just stupid enough to use a easy password that he guessed if it was anyone else this would not even go to court

kemar7856

[QUOTE="efrucht"]

If anything, the FBI should hire him. Find out how he got in, then have him try it again, etc.

Tjeremiah1988

I'm not really sure what encryption has to do with resetting someone's password, but anyway it's pretty easy to encrypt a hard drive. Like I just happened to point out in a thread yesterday, Windows Vista has encryption built in if you decide to use the feature and Truecrypt is very easy-to-use (on Windows anyway) open-source encryption software with some rather nifty features that can be downloaded for free.

thats bull he did'nt even hack it illigall sarah palin was just stupid enough to use a easy password that he guessed if it was anyone else this would not even go to court

kemar7856

thats like saying "its not my fault I broke into the compound, you didnt build the fence high enough or make the razor wire sharp enough"

if someone has taken measures, any measures, to protect what is theirs, then they clearly do not want it messed with.

Still, 20 years in jail is just plain silly. This kid is a young punk trying to prove something, not a career hacker (he didnt even hack, he just pieced things together ang guessed right), and quite frankly I dont think any jail time is necessary.

Leave the poor Hobbits out of this!!! :x RAAWWWRR! :x

If anything, the FBI should hire him. Find out how he got in, then have him try it again, etc.

Twenty years is going way too far. Give him 18 months and a medal. Moroes

seriously

real-life penalty for accessing someone elses email? 6 months jail and/or community service

trumped-up penalty for accessing Palin's email? 6 months jail time, three more charges, and another 19.5 years jail time.

Im sorry, but a college know it all hippy that made a stupid mistake does not deserve to be cast in with rapists, murderers, and thieves.

He wont get 25 years. All charges in court have max penalties but realistically, those convicted only get less than a third of those charges.

20 years in prison for hacking someone's computer? Isn't that slightly over the top?

And yeah he does look like one of the hobbits :lol:

TheOddQuantum

Lol, Palin.

Guy throws shoe at president, three years Guy hacks into Palin's account cause she couldn't keep it secure, twenty years :lol:Toriko42

LOL at legal systems!

LMFAO @ the hobbits youre so right.

Sarah Palin uses Yahoo? What a noob.

I never imagined that a hobbit would go so far. :?

this is what you get for messing with somthing that it tells you in the bible that you should not do. What if he would have been another color would all of this be taken place or for granted i think not only because of who he is and what he stands for is the takking place in this current time frame that we are in at this time.So be careful in what you do or say they are allways listening and i mean it because i have proof of what iam saying and i belive it takes place here and everywhere.chiefstewart

If anything, the FBI should hire him. Find out how he got in, then have him try it again, etc.

efrucht

1. He doesn't deserve more than 6 months in prison. 20 years is absolutely ridiculous.

2. She uses yahoo mail? LOL ...

"series of personal security questions" I always knew those were garbage. Luckily, for those, my answer consists of random 20-digit alphanumeric characters.unholymight

For mine, my question is "What's the name of your favorite book?"

My answer is a book that doesn't exist yet. :P

He deos looks like the Hobbits.